"I don't want to go." I sat beside my daughter, who had the most miserable expression I'd seen on her in 19 years of life. She held a backpack with woefully little room for 65 years of my collection. Outside the window of the bus, I watched old mansions of Inman Park with their dead trees and bushes. I guess that's me, now.

"Granny, I don't want you to go, either." Luna, my 4 year-old granddaughter, hugged me with her smelly goblin toy my daughter’s sorry ex gave her for her birthday last week. Already, her dog Bully gave his opinion of the toy, and no amount of scrubbing makes it smell better. “I decided you need Dromie more than I do.” She pressed the toy into my arms. A pointy ear snagged one of her twin braids. Her hair was lighter brown than ours.

As if I don’t have enough nightmares! This thing had an evil smile, a green plastic face with pointy ears, and enough teeth to chomp my arm. Blue eyes and a softer plastic body didn’t make it very comfortable to hold. It probably started life as a Halloween yard decoration, as faded as it is.

I showed her Andromeda in my telescope but she calls it Dromie, so now this ugly toy has the name. Luna had tears in her blue eyes. “He’s the best toy. He listens to all my problems.” She gave a dramatic sigh. Everything’s dramatic for this wannabe little actress. She could pass for white with that tan skin. Gwen’s medium brown and I’m dark, but my mama was blue-black. Luna has her blue eyes.

“Then, you should keep him—”

“Mama won’t let me. You’ll keep him safe for me, won’t you?”

The screeking of bus brakes gave me an excuse not to answer. I wasn’t so sure I wanted a free clinic giving me a referral to a nursing home.

We got off the bus and my daughter Gwen dropped her bomb. “Mama, I’m getting a divorce. We’re locked out. That’s why I’m doing this.” Her green eyes filled.

I nearly lost my grip on my walker! “We’re homeless? But, you’ve got rights! Bubba can’t keep our things—”

“Mama, he threatened me with his .45! He warned me to leave the key on the kitchen table. I don’t know where Luna and I are goin’. I’m takin’ her to pre-school, then I’m job-huntin’ again.” She sobbed.

I tried to hug her and the walker creaked.

“Mama, just hold onto this. I stuffed a few clothes in Luna’s backpack, and a few in mine. I know this clinic’s new, but maybe they’ll let you sit there long enough for me to find us a place. I put your meds in your bag. There wasn’t room for clothes, but they’ll put hospital gowns on you in the nursing home, anyway.”

I already panted. The walk from north from Ponce de Leon Av went on forever. I had to sit in my rollator often. A pleasant day, but cold. When I put my right hand in my pocket, there were snacks. I gave a pack of peanut butter crackers to Luna.

“Dromie needs that. Here, Dromie.” When she pressed the end against his mouth, it opened! I wasn’t expecting it, and the teeth went down on my finger and crackers crunched.

“Ow!”

“Bad, Dromie! Don’t bite people!”

The mouth opened. My finger had a cut! It’s mechanical, too? Who would build something like that, for a kid? Gwen produced a used paper napkin from her pocket. No trace of the crackers.

Gwen’s brown eyes rolled. “If you get hungry later, I’m not puttin’ my hand in there! He got me good after the party.” She rubbed her hand, which had a jagged cut on the back. It’s red.

“Did you put anything on it?”

“Yeah, an’ Bubba hit me. His first aid kit is off limits.” My daughter got teary. I thought he just yelled. Now I noticed how big her right shoulder was.

Oh, I wanted to give him Dromie! “Why didn’t you bite Bubba? We’re the good guys!”

“Yeah, the good guys!” Luna nodded hard. I laughed. She’s so funny.

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A wicked laugh came from Dromie. I felt really creepy about this toy, but Luna never went anywhere without it. Not since Saturday, anyway.

“What about her dog?”

“That’s Bubba’s dog.” Why would I think he’d get anyone a dog? He probably named it Bully. Didn’t live up to his name, though. He loved Luna. Brown and white Pitt bull, of course.

I kept having to sit after just a few steps.

Gwen sighed. “Mama, I’m sorry, but I have to get Luna to pre-school at Toomer Elementary. Can you make it? Here’s the address.” She wrote it on an old bus schedule.

“I’ll make it. Honey, I wish I could help you—”

“I know you would. Be careful, Mama.” She kissed my cheek and left with Luna.

I put my smelly goblin friend in my bag with my phone. “Don’t eat anything in there, okay?”

“Okay.”

I startled. Looked behind me, and Gwen had Luna on her back, running. “My poor daughter’s gonna kill herself. I guess it’s just Granny and the Goblin, now.” I looked at the address again. It’s a long way. I got back up and grabbed the handles. My walker has hot pink spray paint on it and white truck bed sealant on the seat. Rips from Bully make it darned uncomfortable to sit on.

“Granny and the Goblin. I like.” The plastic face didn’t move.

“Uh, okay. You wouldn’t have anything to do with SETI finding aliens this morning, would you?”

“They did?” That voice wasn’t gravelly like I’d expect, but more like just a male adult.

I made it a few more steps and sat down again. I had him on the side so I wouldn’t be feeling that big nose against my back. “Yeah, SETI got prime numbers, then Morse code, then a whole treaty. They want us to join a trade network. Maybe two of ‘em.” I felt silly talking to a toy. Or is it? I really didn’t want to be alone with it.

“Oh, then I guess I don’t have to hide now.” He got out of my bag and stood beside me. Now, he’s as tall as Luna and looked like her. “You like the way Luna looks. I can talk like her, too. Her hair’s soft.” He pulled at medium brown curls with a hot pink ribbon on each. She didn’t have that.

I’ve been talking to him. But, I’m holding that napkin down with my finger and it’s still bleeding. “It wasn’t very nice of you to bite me.”

“I’m sorry. I guess I was pretty hungry. I don’t eat people. I’m really kind of lost.” He had tears in those blue eyes.

“Lost? Why did you come here?”

“They made me work in a mine because I can change my shape. I can get in places others can’t. But some of us escape-ded. I hid on one of the ships that came here.”

I stopped. Panted more. “You mean, there are more of you?”

“Not like me. I’m the only one of my kind left. You call me a goblin, but I’m a—there’s not a word for me.” He said it, and I never heard a sound like that in my life except in a horror movie! Kind of a metallic screech.

“I’ll stick with goblin! I never was any good at foreign languages, anyway.”

“I don’t look much like a goblin. We’re related to Bisillips, so I do have green skin.”

“What’s a Bis—what do you really look like?”

“You really want to see? You weren’t very happy with me being a goblin.” He looked at his pink shoes.

“Mama always said, ‘Be yourself.’ I’ve known people who were born with deformities, but it’s what’s inside that counts. As long as you don’t want to bite people or beat them up. That’s not good.”

He frowned. “I didn’t like it when Bubba hit Gwen! She cried. I didn’t want to scare her. Are you sure you want to see what I really look like? People in the mine didn’t like me.”

I sat on the walker. “Yes, I really want to see.” Hoped I could handle it!

“Okay.” He got taller and his skin turned green and shiny. “Is this okay?”

He was thin as a skeleton, with a very bony face, but he smiled. His face clicked.

“That’s okay. You look like that?”

“Yes. Should I have ears? You think I look funny.” He didn’t. Or hair.

Behind him, a couple walked towards us from the next block. “Maybe you should look more like me. Not fat, though.”

He stayed about at my elbow in height, but skinny. Stocky and dark brown, like me. “Pass for Earthling?”

“Pass!” I held my hand up for a high five and hoped he wouldn’t do it hard. He barely tapped my palm.

“You’re tired. Let me carry you.” Somehow, he got himself under the walker and moved.

“Don’t hurt yourself!”

“I’m strong. I lifted rocks twice as heavy as you in the mine.”

“Yeah, but I’ll get arrested for child abuse! You still look like an 8-year-old!”

He put me down and rolled the walker.

“Uh, that’ll tear up the wheels!”

They got beefier. “Now it’s better! Let’s go, Granny!” He ran pushing the walker. I worried that it'd get caught on a crack in the sidewalk, but the ride wasn't bumpy at all!

I waved at the couple. But, they turned around when we passed them and walked behind us. “Excuse me, are you going to the clinic in the embassy?”